1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to the field of communication networks and, in particular, to providing systems and methods that control whether a recipient of an electronic message is allowed to forward the electronic message to a third party.
2. Statement of the Problem
Wireless service providers typically offer text messaging services, such as Short Message Service (SMS), to their subscribers. SMS is a service available to digital mobile phones that allows for transmitting and receiving short text messages. Many service providers also offer multimedia messaging services, such as Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), that allow for transmitting and receiving not only text but also various kinds of multimedia content, such as images, audio clips, video clips, etc.
To send an SMS message, a subscriber first enters the text into a mobile phone or other text-enabled device. The subscriber then enters one or more phone numbers for the recipients of the SMS message, and sends the SMS message. A Short Message Service Center (SMSC) receives and stores the SMS message. The SMSC then attempts to forward the SMS message to the recipient when the recipient is available.
Subscribers may also send SMS messages from a web site (often the web site of the service provider) providing SMS functionality. The subscriber enters the number of the recipient and creates customized text for the SMS message through the web site. The subscriber then clicks on “Send” or a similar button to send the SMS message to the recipient.
In addition to the customized text messages that a subscriber may create, there are many professional and non-professional message creators that generate specialized SMS messages. The specialized SMS messages may be a poem, a quote, a joke, a holiday message, etc. Specialized SMS messages such as this are often posted for sale on a content server such as through a web site. If a subscriber enters the web site of the content server having the specialized text messages, then the subscriber may purchase a specialized SMS message and send the specialized SMS message to one or more recipients through the web site. The message creator and the content provider (the owner of the content server) often share the profit of the purchase of the specialized SMS message.
Similar web sites exist that post specialized MMS messages for sale.
One problem with SMS messaging services and MMS messaging services is that recipients of SMS messages or MMS messages may forward the messages to third parties without limitation. A subscriber may create a customized SMS message that he/she only wants the intended recipient to receive, such as a message that is private or personal. Presently, the intended recipient can forward the SMS message to multiple third parties against the wishes of the subscriber. Also, a subscriber may purchase a specialized SMS message and send the specialized SMS message to a recipient. Presently, the recipient may forward the specialized SMS message to one or more third parties, who may forward the message onto to other parties, and so on. The content provider offering the specialized SMS messages thus misses out on potential revenue as only the original sender had to pay for the specialized SMS message.
Similar problems exist for email messages. The recipient of an email message may forward the email message to one or more third parties without permission from the sender of the email message. Email blocking mechanisms do exist that allow a recipient to block emails from certain senders, but the sender of an email message does not presently have the ability to control whether the recipient of the email message is permitted to subsequently forward the email message to other parties.